Live Recording Suggestions

GreedylilPig · Unread post by **GreedylilPig** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 1:17 pm

I've always wanted to tape a show of mine, for enjoyment as well as for improving purposes. It's amazing how many mistakes you notice when listening to yourself. I've tried once by setting up a single microphone in front of my speakers and it turned out horribly.

Does anyone have any experience with recording live shows? Or even if you don't, do you have any suggestions?

I'm playing a couple songs tonight (James Taylor's Sweet Baby James, Jim Croce's I'll Have To Say I Love You In a Song and an original) and I'd love to tape them. I know it's short notice but any input is appreciated.

juineaux · Unread post by **juineaux** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 2:05 pm

Yea ive done alot of live taping of myself live, and I think it is the best way to improve performances. What kinda gear are you using to record?
One of my friends makes great recordings by plugging his minidisk player/recorder directly into the mixing board. They sound suprizingly great.
My band used to drag along a computer with protools to our shows and record things that way. We got a nice sound, but it wasnt really worth all the effort and time to record it that way(we had to mic all the amps, set up a session, ect.)
If you just have one mic, and you cant go through the board, I suggest you set up a mic 6 inches above your mouth and about 2 feet away, pointed at your chest. Avoid miking speakers unless youre playing electric guitar.

GreedylilPig · Unread post by **GreedylilPig** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 2:22 pm

Thanks for the advice. When I record here at my house, it's merely a Yamaha 4-track. I then transfer it to my PC as a .wav, do whatever modifications I need to do in Screenblast Sound Forge (it came with my computer; I'd like Cool Edit but I refuse to illegally download it), and convert it to an MP3.

I thought about taking my laptop and plugging directly into that but that idea was shot down when I realized I wouldn't be able to plug into my amps.

I'll try your suggestion of setting up a separate mic mic 6 inches above my mouth and about 2 feet away, pointed at my chest and plugging it into my 4-track, using it as a single track. Thanks.

katie · Unread post by **katie** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 2:35 pm

james taylor rocks, nice choice. fire and rain, steamroller - ah so many good ones.

may I ask you brian which program you use to transform from your four track into .wav format. I'm a novice with home recording and would love to learn more. One more question, when you sing and play guitar do use it as a single track...

thank you - take care

juineaux · Unread post by **juineaux** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 3:18 pm

GreedylilPig wrote:Thanks for the advice. When I record here at my house, it's merely a Yamaha 4-track. I then transfer it to my PC as a .wav, do whatever modifications I need to do in Screenblast Sound Forge.

Do you get a pretty good sound at your house? if you do, just try to duplicate that live as best you can. What is the place you are playing at like(setup wise)? do they have a sound guy for you? ever try the direct out on your amp?

GreedylilPig · Unread post by **GreedylilPig** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 3:28 pm

katie wrote:james taylor rocks, nice choice. fire and rain, steamroller - ah so many good ones.

may I ask you brian which program you use to transform from your four track into .wav format. I'm a novice with home recording and would love to learn more. One more question, when you sing and play guitar do use it as a single track...

thank you - take care

The program I use to convert .wav into .mp3 is a program called mkw Audio Compression Tool 0.97 BETA 1.

When I record, I play and sing at the same time but use different inputs (different tracks) on the 4-track.

GreedylilPig · Unread post by **GreedylilPig** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 3:33 pm

juineaux wrote:Do you get a pretty good sound at your house? if you do, just try to duplicate that live as best you can. What is the place you are playing at like(setup wise)? do they have a sound guy for you? ever try the direct out on your amp?

Yeah, I think I get an okay sound. It's not as good as I'd like but it's enjoyable in my opinion. If you've heard any of my covers then you can get an idea.

I'm responsible for everything at the gig. I'm using a Fender Acoustasonic SFXII Acoustic amplifier for my guitar and a Fender Princeton Chorus amplifier for my microphone. The combination produces a pretty good sound.

juineaux · Unread post by **juineaux** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 5:19 pm

those are some pretty nice amps, so mabey you should look for a direct out on those, along with the mic(since you have the four track). You will probably have to adjust the way the mic is postioned because I have a loud voice and a quiet guitar...so experiment. Cant wait to hear some of your stuff when youre done.

heres one of my friends live recordings with the minidisk live, I think im gonna buy one of those because it sounds so nice:
http://www.joshw.org/mp3/JoshWoodward-Incoherent.mp3

GreedylilPig · Unread post by **GreedylilPig** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 5:30 pm

Thank you so much for the advice, Josh. I greatly appreciate it. I'll look into a direct-out jack on them. I'm leaving in about an hour - hopefully I'll be able to figure out a set-up.

Your recording was great, man. Very clear. Congratulations on the completion of your album, by the way.

Thanks again.

juineaux · Unread post by **juineaux** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 6:18 pm

that was my friend josh, im tom. But i'll tell him you liked it-
Hope you gig/recording goes well

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